


The River Always Finds the Sea

by therealmnemo



Series: You Better Start Swimmin' Or You'll Sink Like A Stone [3]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Hormones, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Side Story, Young Love, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 07:31:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8703289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therealmnemo/pseuds/therealmnemo
Summary: It all started with a young Templar recruit named Karl and a young Mer the Seekers brought into the Circle.The story of Anders' 14 years in captivity and the man who loved him enough to let him go.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Holy exposition. I figured I'd use this story to get some background in for the main fic while getting out my Kanders feels.
> 
> Title is from 'Paper Boats' by Darren Korb

Karl was ready to quit.

He yanked the Templar robes over his body and kicked his bunk for good measure before stepping out into the hallway of the Kirkwall Chantry. The Chantry took such _fine_ care of their Templars, setting up a small dormitory for the newer recruits that came from all over Thedas. He had to admit that made all of this easier, not having to find somewhere to live.

At the same time it made everything more difficult. Easier to be found out the longer he had to stay. It had only been a week, and he was doubting everything Irving told him.

Karl stepped through the connected entrance of the Chantry to the Kirkwall Aquarium. This specific entrance led directly into the inner tanks that weren’t accessible to the regular patrons.

The Circles were a well guarded secret and Kirkwall’s Circle was the last one in Thedas. Since the last Exalted March that eliminated magic from the world, the only beings left with any kind of magic were the Mer. The Chantry itself continued to preach the dangers of the Mer to their congregations, warning their flock against going into the oceans. In the meantime, they sent select Templars from their ranks--Seekers--to scour the waters for any Mer they could find.

Those unlucky Mer ended up in the Circle tanks. Here they were experimented on by the Templars. If they weren’t magical, they were simply experimented on with things that they wouldn’t dare test on humans. They weren’t ‘people’ after all. When they outlived their usefulness, they were slaughtered. Their scales kept and sold to the runecrafters in the city.

If they were magical, well, whatever gift they had was twisted to their advantage until they either weren’t useful anymore or flat out refused to cooperate. Then they were ‘tranquilized’. A sick joke truly, naming it after the barbaric custom forced upon mages of the past. This process robbed them of their higher-level thought processing, turning them into feral animals. These poor souls were put on display in smaller tanks at the entrance of the Aquariums to inform (scare) the patrons from ever engaging with one. They usually died of stress within a week.

Karl rushed down the hall to the meeting room that held their assignments. At seventeen, he was the perfect Templar recruit. Young and impressionable. The younger they were, the easier it was to condition their minds to the abuse of their charges.  
  
They wouldn’t be getting to him. He belonged to one of the land pods. Groups of River-Mer that lived nomadically along the rivers for generations and had slowly taken in the Mer that escaped the now-defunct Circles across Thedas. Karl had been born into the one at Lake Calenhad before it was slowly infiltrated by the Mer of the surrounding area. Irving helped Karl escape personally.

Irving then hand-picked Karl to go into the Kirkwall Circle.

Karl stared at the assignments posted on the wall. Intake again. All the newer recruits seemed to be on Intake for the first few months even though it was never explicitly stated. His partner, for what looked to be a repeat of the first week, was a blond named Cullen. The boy was overly sympathetic to the Chantry, likely he was raised up in one of their ‘after school’ programs from the time he was a child. Karl didn’t spend much time talking to him.

As he walked through the halls once more and down the stairs to the Intake room, he fiddled with the runed Chantry cross around his neck. It felt like a collar. What made Kirkwall’s Circle so solid was that the City-State made it mandatory for every citizen to wear the damned things. The runes were supposedly to ward off Mer, as Kirkwall was set along the sea and a ‘prime target’. For a long time this kept the River-Mer from taking any kind of action against it for fear of discovery.

They only found out recently that the runes were worthless. No, not entirely worthless, but at the least they were a symbol of the control of the Chantry. At the most they allowed anyone with the money to make their own custom runes and wear them openly in public. Seekers had ones that detected Mer. Templars had runes that rendered themselves immune to magic. More nefarious ones circulated underground, but the River pods finally found a Dwarven group in Kirkwall that would craft ones special for them.

The rune on Karl’s necklace was enchanted with the customary Templar enchantments, but also kept him from transforming in water. A little water was fine, but once fully submerged, the change happens almost instantaneously. This rune let him through the recruiting process undetected. The Chantry did not know the Mer could transform either way, and this is a secret they desperately needed to keep.

Karl slipped through the door at the bottom of the stairs. The room opened up into a cavern that rested underneath the city, allowing Seeker boats to bring their cargo directly into Aquarium. Cullen was already there holding a conversation with one of the Intake Templars. Karl sighed and sat on the edge of the dock. The first week only saw them bring in one Mer that was destroyed almost immediately after being put into the tanks. The old man seized up and became unresponsive, not magical at all, nothing worth saving.  He shuddered at the thought.

From the looks of things, it was going to be another fruitless day. Karl let his mind wander. He had no idea how he was going to help bring this Circle down. Right now he was simply there to get information; but the Chantry heavily monitored all communication, making it impossible to relay that information back to Irving. He had no privileges being a new recruit, so he wasn’t going to be smuggling anyone out in the near future. It only took four people to dismantle the Ferelden Circle, but they sent him alone to Kirkwall. This was going to be a long assignment, one he doesn’t think he can handle anymore.

His thoughts were disrupted by the sound of oars hitting the waves as a Seeker boat approached the docks. Once anchored, the Seekers didn’t have their usual look of triumph as they opened the submerged cage attached to the boat. Only one Seeker reached into the cage, and pulled out… a child. Karl scrambled to his feet to watch the Seeker hand over the young Mer to the shocked Templar in charge of Intake. The child, who couldn’t have been older than twelve, was still knocked out; whatever sedative they used was obviously too strong for a such a small thing. Matted blonde hair slicked down past his shoulders, with a long tail of orange scales and translucent fins. An Ocean Mer.

Karl didn’t hesitate and stepped forward to the Templar holding the boy. “I’ll take him to the tanks, Ser.”

“Good Initiative, Recruit,” the Templar replied quickly, “Make it quick, we don’t want it to dry out.”

Karl gathered the boy in his arms and took to the stairs. Not even four steps up, the boy shifted in his arms. The small patches of scales under his eyes shimmered from the lights. Karl stopped as the boy’s eyes opened wide with shock. Before Karl could say anything, the child started crying. Karl recognized the shrill noise and clicking that all children are taught when they find themselves trapped somewhere out of the pod’s reach.

After a quick look behind to make sure no one followed, Karl responded with a soft hum and clicking to comfort him. The tears didn’t stop but the child stopped vocalizing and stared at him.

“My name is Karl, I’m not going to hurt you.” Karl gave the boy a small squeeze. “We’re just going to go upstairs and get you into some water, alright?”

The boy didn’t say anything, but his breathing started to even out.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?”

The young Mer wrung his hands together and took a good look at Karl before answering softly, “Anders.”

Karl gave Anders an encouraging smile. “Okay Anders, let’s get you in the water and get you some shellfish. I’m going to take good care of you.”

He barely caught the small smile on Anders’ face before it was pressed against his chest, the boy curling in on him as much as he could. Karl resumed the climb, taking the steps two at a time.

There was no way he could quit now.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr!
> 
> main blog: [therealmnemo](http://therealmnemo.tumblr.com/) \- where I reblog practically anything but mostly Dragon Age  
> anders and fenris blog: [teambluandangry](http://teamblueandangry.tumblr.com/) -Positive Art, Fanfiction, Headcanons, and Character Analysis for Fenris, Anders, and any ship they sail.  
> 


End file.
